Balatro, Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Mini Metro/Mini Motorways are some of my go-to "turn brain off, just do a thing" games.

Stardew Valley - relaxing and easy to pick up, perfect game to play in short bursts, and cosy as fuck.

Vampire Survivor - hordes of enemies advance at you and you automatically fire back, all you have to do is move. It's easy to learn, fun to play and has surprising longevity and depth to it. Megabonk seems to be a new 3D take on the same game concept.

Honestly? Minecraft. It can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be, as simple or as complex. It's easy to start, but there's a lot of depth to what's possible in the game so it never really feels limited - which is one of the problems I have with most "cozy" or "relaxing" games, they get boring after about 15 minutes.

If you just want to hang out and tend the orchard, raise some crops, maybe build another addition to the house, that's cool. If you feel like getting away from the house for awhile, go on a walkabout, go on an exploration journey, go fight some scary monsters, that's always an option. You can just get lost wandering around for hours or days.

If you want to do a complex project you can get into redstone circuits, which can be as simple as lights that turn on automatically when the sun goes down, or as complex as building a functional computer.

And if you really want to get into it you can look into installing mods, and running your own server.

I always end up going back to Minecraft, because no other game that I know of offers the depth and variability to just fit how I'm feeling at that moment.

Try Crimsonland, it's the original Vampire Survivors

Powerwash simulator, fantasy life I, disgaea, deep rock galactic (takes a little time to learn things, but a great friendly community), any of the Forza Horizons. It all depends on what type of game you're looking for.

:edit: swapped Forza Horizon in for Sonic Crossworlds. Better flow game.

Pinball Arcade, Spell Brigade,

The correct answer to flow games is always Tetris.

If you're down to emulate there a bunch of great gen 1 and 2 games that fit, like Echo the Dolphin, the OG Sonic games, Waverunner, Strfox, not to mention the OG Super Brothers, and hey why not go even further back with Galaga, Space Invaders, Cenitioede, Asteroids, etc.

Panel de Pon

do you have a collection? If so I would say just go through what you got and play each one as long as you care to. if you get through your collection then maybe find a new thing.

For me Stardew Valley worked. Easy, cosy, just don't be afraid to miss stuff, in this game you can always do anything later.

Also, Cult of the Lamb was veeery cozy. Btw if you think roguelike side of the game is a bit dull and you like the cult tycoon side more (as I did) make sure to check accessibility settings, there are options to make this part insanely simple.

Something I found after making this post due to unrelated recommendations from friends: interactive fiction genre (think !visualnovels@ani.social without the visuals, or Choose Your Own Adventure books). Works for me, as someone who reads for entertainment, someone for whom reading fiction never classed as "work" mentally and always classed as "play" even when it was assigned for school. Especially with the paragraph format; ironically reading item descriptions and bits of lore in a few documents, or going through GUI or in-game books in Minecraft to learn someone's mod can get to me pretty badly and takes my energy away.